Sunday, September 6, 2009

The storyline follows Nanoha Takamachi, a nine-year-old Japanese girl attending elementary school, who lives with her parents and her older siblings. Nanoha's regular everyday life ends when she rescues an injured ferret who turns out to be a young shapeshifting mage named Yūno Scrya. An archaeologist from a parallel universe, Yūno came to Earth to collect the set of twenty-one dangerous ancient artifacts named the "Jewel Seeds" (ジュエルシード, Jueru Shīdo) he first discovered in his own world. Jewel Seeds turn living beings who come into contact with them into monsters and Yūno, injured while collecting them, must now rely on Nanoha while he convalesces in the ferret form. He gives Nanoha an "intelligent device" (magical wand) called "Raising Heart" (レイジングハート, Reijingu Hāto) and she unexpectedly shows strong aptitude for magic. As the two begin to gather Jewel Seeds, Nanoha learns magic from Yūno while continuing with her ordinary everyday life.While retrieving her sixth Jewel Seed, Nanoha is confronted by Fate Testarossa and her familiar Arf. Fate's mother, Precia Testarossa, sent her out to collect the Jewel Seeds, which she needs to travel to the lost world of Al Hazard, where all wishes are said to be fulfilled. More than a year before the story began, Precia went insane when her daughter Alicia died and initiated "Project Fate", an illegal research of cloning and resurrection, making her a fugitive from the interdimensional police known as Time-Space Administration Bureau (TSAB). Precia cloned Alicia to create Fate and implanted with Alicia's memories but she is nevertheless unable to see Fate as Alicia and instead abuses her regularly. Despite the abuse, Fate is extremely loyal to her because of Alicia's happy childhood memories she holds for her own. In the series, Precia uses Fate to collect Jewel Seeds and reach Al Hazard, where Alicia could be truly brought back to life.Nanoha and Fate face off against each other over each new Jewel Seed, and the TSAB soon interferes to prevent the collateral damage caused by their battles. Nanoha eventually manages to overpower Fate and brings her to the TSAB, prompting Precia to abandon her and to attempt a dimensional jump to Al Hazard with the power of the few Jewel Seeds Fate managed to gather so far. Gathering her resolve, Fate decides to aid the TSAB and Nanoha in their fight to stop Precia. Although they manage to minimize the destructive side-effects of using the Jewel Seeds, they are unable to prevent Precia from finishing the spell and her final whereabouts are unknown. Fate and Nanoha decide to become friends but first, Fate must travel to TSAB homeworld to prove she was an unwilling accessory in Precia's crimes.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (魔法少女リリカルなのは, Mahō Shōjo Ririkaru Nanoha) is an anime television directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with screenplay written by Masaki Tsuzuki, and produced by Seven Arcs and is a part of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series. It was broadcast on UHF for thirteen episodes between October and December 2004. The series is a spin-off of the Triangle Heart series and its story follows a young girl named Nanoha Takamachi who decides to help a young mage named Yūno to recover a set of twenty-one artifacts named the "Jewel Seeds".The series was adapted into a novel written by Masaki Tsuzuki and published by Megami Bunko on August 2005. A film adaptation of the series is in production and is scheduled to be released in 2010. Several soundtracks and drama CDs have been adapted from the series.Geneon Entertainment licensed the anime series for English-language dubbed release in North America. Funimation Entertainment distributed the series across a single DVD compilation volume boxset.The anime series recieved mixed reviews from English-language critics with some praising and others criticising the series' pacing, visual style, and music.

Maria-sama ga Miteru (マリア様がみてる, lit. The Virgin Mary is Watching or Maria Watches Over Us), often shortened to Marimite (マリみて), is an ongoing series of Japanese shōjo light novels written by Japanese author Oyuki Konno, and illustrated by Reine Hibiki. The series focuses on a group of teenage girls attending Lillian Catholic school for girls in Tokyo, Japan. A common theme throughout the series revolves around the lives and close relationships of the school's student council known as the Yamayuri Council. Maria-sama ga Miteru is considered as representative of yuri novels.The series began as a short story in the February 1997 issue of Cobalt, a shōjo fiction magazine published by Shueisha. The first light novel was published by Shueisha on April 24, 1998, and as of December 2008 the series has grown to thirty-five volumes. Shueisha has also produced manga and drama CD adaptations; as of 2009 the latter is still ongoingBetween January 2004 and March 2009 the series was adapted into a four-season anime produced by Studio Deen. The Right Stuf International has licensed all four seasons through its production arm Nozomi Entertainment, and is releasing them in North America under the title Maria Watches Over Us

Mahoro Andou (安藤 まほろ, Andō Mahoro) (CODE: V1046-R MAHORO)Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)Mahoro is an android created by VESPER to fight an alien invasion by Saint in the 1980s. She is immensely powerful and fast, and is considered to be a formidable opponent by her enemies.Being an android, she has a limited life span. At the beginning of the story, she has just 398 days to live, and is given the choice to do anything she wants by VESPER. She chooses to become a maid for Suguru Misato: his father was her superior commander, and she was forced to kill both him and an alien when the alien took him hostage.Mahoro has a very sunny disposition and is friendly to just about everyone — she becomes a welcome regular at the market and becomes famous at Suguru's school for working for him. She also quickly becomes an excellent cook, able to emulate and recreate dishes from the best restaurants. She is also quite devoted to Suguru, with feelings for him reminiscent of both doting mother and shy girlfriend.She is, however, extremely hostile towards anything ecchi, or perverted. A good portion of the story's humour comes from Mahoro chasing after Suguru's secret stash of pornographic magazines which, given her training, she is easily able to find. She is well known for this attitude from her catch phrase: "Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu" ("I think that dirty thoughts are bad"). Mahoro and Shikijo-sensei's dislike of one another stems from this — Shikijo is constantly trying to have an illicit relationship with Suguru.Mahoro is very concerned about her appearance, often not allowing herself to wear normal clothes as she is concerned that it would look bad to the neighbours given her position as a maid. She is also obsessed with her small breasts, and some stories actually deal with her rivalry with Shikijo (who has very large breasts), as well as her techniques and requests to VESPER for larger breasts.In some episode when Mahoro is asleep, baby chicks come out from her and fly around her head. But no explanation was given why this event happens and on what reason is it for.She still has access to many of her weapons and gadgets from her VESPER days, and is able to pull out her gun at any time. She also has access to the "silpheed", which when worn on her back allows her to fly, as well as her support mech, Slash. She is able to call both the Silpheed and Slash at a moment's notice from the badge she wears on her maid uniform. In addition, she still can use her fully equipped and armed BMW sports convertible and MV Agusta motorcycle.Mahoro was created using Saint alien technology, giving her a true soul and a pure heart. Later in the series it is revealed that Mahoro is directly connected to the memories of Matthew, who on some occasions supplies Mahoro advice.She had no family name until the name Andou (short for android) was created by Suguru. At the end of the series Mahoro and Suguru have fallen in love.

Mahoromatic (まほろまてぃっく, Mahoromatikku) is a sci-fi romantic comedy manga and anime series which contains elements of the literary genre of tragic dramas. It is about a former female android soldier, Mahoro. Driven by guilt from her actions during her combat days, she decides to dedicate the rest of her life to serving the son of her late commander as a maid.

The manga proved popular, and was adapted into two anime series by Gainax: "Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden" and "Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful" (まほろまてぃっく~もっと美しいもの~, Mahoromatikku: Motto Utsukushii Mono)The first series consisted of twelve episodes and ran from September 10, 2001 to January 28, 2002 on BS-i in Japan, and more or less followed the manga to the third volume.The second series also followed the manga, culminating in the story's end. This series ran from September 26, 2002 till January 16, 2003.A television special, "Mahoromatic: Summer TV Special" (まほろまてぃっく夏のTVスペシャル, Mahoromatikku Natsu no Terebi Supesharu), set in the days when Minawa had become a regular part of the household, was produced and aired around Summer 2003.A two episode special entitled Mahoromatic: Tadaima Okaeri was announced on August 22, 2009. It will air on October 17 and October 24, 2009.Originally the anime was licensed by Pioneer (Geneon Entertainment). As of October 2008, ADV Films had announced that they had regained licenses to both Mahoromatic, and Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful, through its new Japanese licensor Sentai Filmworks.Mahoromatic is currently available through The Anime Network's free Video on demand service, found on many cable systems and DirecTV.

I stumbled over some really nice prices on Heroes games over at Amazon.co.uk... Now, we don't normally do this sort of outright plugging, but I think you should know about this, seriously... Obviously, Amazon are logging out all sorts of obsolete games at lowered prices, but the cherry on the top is a release of Heroes III & IV Complete from Sold Out software for only £2.78. That's a collection of the complete versions of Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV with their respective expansions, for less than three quid. The same item sold by the American branch (Amazon.com) is sold for $29.99, which is *quick calculations off the top of my head* ... about six times the price. I dunno if the price on this has been this low since its release in May, or if it's a bargain thing lasting only a few days... but if you're interested in this at all, I'd pick it up now.